Method European Snowboard Magazine article
Article in Method European Snowboard Magazine Volume 7.2
Page 40
www.method.tv
The year was 1998, and snowboarding was making its debut at the winter Olympics in Nagano, Japan. Politically, this was a rocky time in snowboarding. Rival governing bodies FIS and ISF struggled for control of the sport, the IOC were wary of these young troublemakers, and world number one Terje Haakonsen challenged the legitimacy of snowboarding at the Olympics by boycotting the halfpipe event. Then as now, halfpipe was the main for snowboard and mainstream media alike; nobody was really paying much attention to the racers - snowboarding's lycra-clad nerds.
Nobody was paying attention that is, until men's slalom winner Ross Rebagliati tested positive for marijuana, and was stripped of his gold medal...
Can you imagine the media frenzy? The mainstream media already had snowboarders pegged as baggy panted blached haired teenage delinquents, so a drug scandal was just too perfect. Meanwhile, snowboarders around the world had to smile: while regular athletes injected steroids, we were inhaling THC. Chat show hosts across the planet bantered: "The real question is, are there any snowboarders who DON'T smoke marijuana?" Telling a snowboarder not to smoke weed is like telling a darts players not to drink beer!" and bumper stickers told us to "Smoke a Fatty for Rebagliati".
It seemed like everybody was laughing except Ross and the Olympic committee. Ross, who hails from homegrown heaven Whistler, claimed he had only inhaled second-had smoke, but the biggest question was: why would anyone test for marijuana in the first place? After all, it has no performance-enhancing qualities whatsoever, as lazy stoners around the world will testify.
The battle raged on behind closed doors for three days, with some committee memnbers arguing that testing positive for any illegal substance should automatically mean disqualification, while other argued that weed, inhaled unintentionally or otherwise, could not aid performance. Eventually, they decided that the rules had been too unclear to enforce, and Ross was allowed to keep his medal. Today, Marijuana is clearly listed as a banned substance, and a positive test of 15 nanograms per millilitre (more than you can get from second-hand smoke) will get your ass disqualified, no argument.
Rebagliati had just achieved what no snowboarder has achieved before or since: he made racers look cooler than freestylers. He became the poster boy for a new de-criminalisation movement in Canada, and picked up a lot of lucrative sponsorship deals. But most importantly, he confirmed once and for always that snowboarding is not like other sports, and never will be.